WikiHouse is an open source project for designing and building houses. It endeavors to democratize and simplify the construction of sustainable, resource-light dwellings. The project began in 2011 as an experiment by Tav, James Arthur, Beatrice Galilee, Nick Ierodiaconou and Alastair Parvin at the Gwangju Design Biennale in Gwangju, South Korea. Created as a collaboration between London-based design practice 00:/, the creative collective Espians, and the civil and structural engineering practice Momentum, the project has since grown to include many chapters around the world.
WikiHouse enables users to download Creative Commons-licensed building plans from its website, customize them using SketchUp, and then use them to create jigsaw puzzle-like pieces out of plywood with a CNC router Construction of WikiHouse structures requires no special parts because the cut pieces of wood snap together with wedge and peg connections inspired by classical Korean architecture. The frame of a WikiHouse can be assembled in less than a day by people with no formal training in construction. The frame must then be finished with cladding, insulation, wiring and plumbing before it can be inhabited
Scale models of two different WikiHouse designs
As of December 2013, there are currently no inhabited WikiHouses, although there are a few completed prototypes in addition to a usable walkers' shelter in Fridaythorpe, England. These WikiHouses are single-story, square-shaped structures with sloped roofs and small foundations that measure about 175 square feet (16.3 m2).
After winning a cash prize at TED Global in June 2012, the project invested the prize money into a partnership with the Brazilian youth mobilization project Dharma and the analysis agency BrazilIntel to build WikiHouses in the poorest favelas of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The goal of the partnership, dubbed WikiHouseRio, is to provide a single "maker lab" where one CNC router can be shared by the community while also allowing and encouraging community members to develop their own designing and building skills. The WikiHouse team plans to eventually create similar maker labs in other underdeveloped communities around the world. There are also plans to use WikiHouses as disaster-relief housing in earthquake-prone countries such as Haiti, Japan and New Zealand.
Media reaction to WikiHouse has focused largely on the experimental nature of the project, comparisons with IKEA furniture, and the potential difficulty in finding and costs of using CNC routers. American science fiction author Bruce Sterling also gave a review of the WikiHouse design, describing it favorably as a dwelling "I could quite likely build and inhabit, personally".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WikiHouse
No comments:
Post a Comment